20 Indian Americans running for US Congress raise more than $15.5 mn

A record number of 20 Indian Americans are running for US Congressional elections this year. Collectively they have raised more than 15.5 million dollars, with seven of them raising over a million each. With six months still to go for the November Congressional election, the figure of more than 15.5 million dollars raised by Indian Americans so far could be a record in itself for any ethnic community in the US. Traditionally, a significant amount of money is raised by candidates in the last two quarters.

As per the latest fund-raising figures released by the Federal Election Commission, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois has raised maximum over 3.5 million dollars. Mr Krishnamoorthi is seeking his re-election from the eighth Congressional district in Illinois. Pitted against him is Indian American Jitender Digankar from the Republican party.

Indian-American scientist and entrepreneur Shiv Ayyadurai is running as an independent candidate for the US Senate seat from Massachusetts.
Three other Indian American Congressmen Ro Khanna, Dr Ami Bera and Pramila Jayapal each have raised more than a million dollars each. Krishnamoorthi, Khanna, Bera and Jayapal are the four Indian Americans in the current House of Representative.

They are collectively called Samosa Caucus.Pramila Jayapal, the first ever Indian-American to be elected to the House of Representative has raised 1.3 million dollars. She is seeking her re-election from the seventh Congressional District of Washington State.

In addition to Jayapal, four other Indian American women are running for the US House of Representatives Hiral Tipirneni from eights Congressional District of Arizona; Aruna Miller from sixth Congressional District of Maryland, Anita Malik from sixth Congressional District of Arizona and Saira Rao from the first Congressional District of Colorado. All four are from the Democratic party.